New Harvest Christian Church, Oregon, is joining the Flint Grassroots Initiative to collect water for Flint neighborhoods affected by lead contaminated water.

Commercially bottled water of any size will be accepted, though containers of one gallon or larger are preferred. Bottles will be collected from through Feb. 12 between the hours of 9 a.m. and noon and 6-8 p.m. at the church, 3540 Seaman Rd.

For information about volunteer or donation opportunities through New Harvest Christian Church, contact Pastor Sharon McQueary at 419-693-6543 or mcqueary197@gmail.com.

For information about the Flint Grassroots Initiative, call or email Jody Eidnes at 734-451-4670or jody@greatlakes.cc.

A student at Lake High School is being charged with inducing panic after allegedly sending an email threat to the school on Jan. 27.

According to Lake Township police reports, the 15-year-old male, of Walbridge, used another student’s email account to send the message to the school email address of Lee Herman, high school principal.

The message, which was sent around 11:15 a.m., said if the building wasn’t evacuated in 30 minutes, people could get hurt.

Herman was off campus at the time and unable to access his account. He discovered the warning when he arrived home and checked his messages around 5 p.m., according to the school district administration.

New construction, resurfacing and drainage projects were among the highlights of Northwood Mayor Ed Schimmel’s first State of the City address, though he noted that challenges lay ahead.

“We begin the year with a positive general fund carryover,” said Schimmel. “We have approved a balanced 2016 budget totaling $4,751,100 and we project our 2016 general fund revenue to total $4,697,956.”

Income tax collections last year were down by 5.5 percent from 2014, while total General Fund Expenditures increased by $380,904 or 8.2 percent.

A former employee of Midwest Terminals of Toledo International, Inc. is entitled to unemployment compensation benefits after being dismissed without just cause, the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals has ruled, affirming decisions by a lower court and the Unemployment Compensation Review Commission.

Otis Brown had worked as a skilled laborer at Midwest Terminals for 12 years and was fired in October 2013 for violating the company’s equipment abuse and misuse policy. The company claimed he improperly rode the brakes of an end loader throughout his 12-hour shift, causing damages of more than $24,000.

Brown filed for unemployment benefits and a hearing was held before a UCRC hearing officer in February 2014. The commission found that Brown provided more credible firsthand sworn testimony.

It wasn't anything like the water crisis that faced Toledo and the surrounding area in August 2014, but the Village of Oak Harbor was without drinking water Jan. 29.

A computer malfunction that was caused by hardware burning out resulted in a boil advisory for the village. Communication between the village and the Regional Water Treatment Plant was disrupted, causing the treatment center to stop sending water to Oak Harbor.

"Somewhere through the night, Friday morning, we had a computer malfunction. That stopped communication between the village and the regional water plant after the hardware burned out, and the regional water plant didn't see that our water towers were empty," said Mayor Joe Helle. "We didn't receive water, and we started losing pressure in the village; we started becoming aware of the situation because of calls from the residents."